NHS to spend more to settle lawsuits over negligence during childbirth after court ruling

The NHS will have to spend more money settling lawsuits involving negligence during childbirth after a supreme court ruling that lawyers said puts right a “historic injustice”.The court ruled on Wednesday that children in England who suffer catastrophic injuries while they are being born can claim damages for future earnings they would otherwise have had.The ruling on “lost years damages” means that children whose life expectancy is shortened can recover compensation for being unable to work.It comes amid mounting concern at the rising cost of medical negligence to the NHS in England – its liabilities have hit £60bn – much of which is due to errors made during childbirth.“The supreme court today has put right an historic injustice which set injured children’s rights in negligence cases at a lesser level than those of an adult,” said James Drydale, the lawyer for a girl known only as CCC

Ketamine addiction making teenagers wet the bed, says UK’s first specialist clinic

Children are using incontinence pads and urinating in buckets next to their bed at night due to bladder problems caused by ketamine addiction, according to the first specialist NHS clinic dealing with the issue.Medics at Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool have opened the first ketamine clinic for young people in the UK in response to a surge in urology problems linked to addiction of the drug.“Some of our patients start wetting the bed or find going to the bathroom at night is actually too hard, so they’ll either choose incontinence products or a bucket by the bed,” said Harriet Corbett, a consultant paediatric urologist at the clinic.“I hate to say it, but a lot of them get to the point where they’re not fussed about where they go, because the need to go overrides their desire to find somewhere private. And I suspect more of them are incontinent than are willing to tell us

Death tax? Property tax? Four ideas that could offset inheritance inequality in Australia

The $5.4tn intergenerational wealth transfer predicted to occur within the next two decades is a major challenge for Australian governments. Economists have warned it could entrench and exacerbate inequality, and make the economy less productive. So what can be done about it?“In the end, that comes down to tax,” says the former deputy reserve bank governor Guy Debelle. “Taxation is how you redistribute

The disturbing rise of Clavicular: how a looksmaxxer turned his ‘horror story’ into fame

His gonzo argot of ‘mogging’ and ‘jestermaxxing’ masks a malign chauvinist philosophy, and his audience keeps growingHow’s your “jestermaxxing” game? Have you been “brutally frame-mogged” lately? If you’ve been finding this kind of online discourse even more impenetrable than usual, a 20-year-old content creator calling himself Clavicular is probably to blame.Born Braden Peters, Clavicular is a manosphere-adjacent influencer who has recently broken containment for a string of high-profile controversies, including livestreaming himself apparently running over a pedestrian with his Tesla Cybertruck and being filmed chanting the lyrics to Kanye West’s Heil Hitler in a nightclub with the self-styled “misogynist influencer” Andrew Tate and the white nationalist commentator Nick Fuentes.Before taking up with what some feel are among the worst men alive, Clavicular was known only as a “looksmaxxer”, a young man intent on optimising his physical attractiveness by frequently extreme measures (such as steroids, surgery and, er, taking a hammer to his jaw).Yet Clavicular’s gonzo live streams and absurd lingo have seen him escape his subcultural silo, landing him a modelling gig at New York fashion week and a profile in the New York Times.So where has he come from? And what does his rise mean for humanity?Peters came to prominence last year on the streaming platform Kick (like Twitch, but more laissez-faire with content moderation), where he now has nearly 180,000 followers

Ministers may slow youth minimum wage rise amid UK unemployment fears

Ministers are considering a slower rise in the minimum wage for younger workers, amid fears over rising youth unemployment.Labour had promised in its manifesto to equalise national minimum wage rates by the time of the next election, saying it was unfair younger workers were paid less. Government sources said equalisation remained the aim but the rise could come more slowly.At the current rates, those between 18 and 20 are paid a minimum of £10 an hour, rising to £12.21 an hour for those over 21

UK shoppers warned over spread of harmful and illegal skin lightening kits

Illegal skin lightening products are being sold in an increasingly wide range of UK outlets, including butchers, specialist food shops and small grocery stores, trading standards officers have warned.The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) is warning that many of the products contain substances that are banned because of the serious risks they pose to health, including skin damage, infections and pregnancy complications.Officers say that, as well as online, they are finding them more frequently in Asian and Arab stores, plus specialist butchers and grocery stores for other diverse communities, whom the products are primarily targeted at.Tendy Lindsay, former chair of the CTSI, said: “As a Black woman and a longstanding advocate for equality, diversity and inclusion, I want to be absolutely clear: the sale of illegal skin lightening products is not only dangerous, it is unlawful.“Many of these products contain banned substances such as high levels of hydroquinone, mercury or potent corticosteroids